Be Careful of This Common Food Additive
If you want the most valuable information when you're shopping for food and beverage, look no further than the ingredients list.
Lately, the most common ingredient I get asked about is carrageenan. Carrageenan is considered to be harmless by most authorities including the US government. However, the research says otherwise.
Carrageenan is actually a seaweed. Most would consider it a health food since it's a sea vegetable. Sea vegetables are actually a good source of iodine, sulfur, trace minerals and iodine, but the bad outweighs the good when it comes to carrageenan.
In recent studies, carrageenan was shown to create ulcers and some types of cancers in animals. It can easily trigger inflammatory bowel disease in humans as well. Many researchers also believe carrageenan can cause irritable bowel, breast cancer and more.
Carrageenan changes detoxification in sulfur pathways (needed for hormones, toxins, etc) and can even be responsible for deep vein thrombosis. Chemists have also discovered that carrageenan suppresses gamma interferon (a cytokine crucial for tumor and infectious control) as well as control of inflammation and autoimmune disease.
Carrageenan prevents separation in foods containing milk or chocolate. It provides texture to not only foods, but cosmetics, toothpaste, deodorizers and pesticides. It's commonly found in cottage cheese, ice cream, infant formula, diabetic beverages and low-fat meals and yogurts. It can also be found in some brands of almond milk.
The moral of the story is make sure you're reading ingredients on everything and avoid carrageenan at all costs.
References:
Tobacman JK, et al, Review of harmful gastrointestinal effects of carrageenan in animal studies, Environ Health Persp 109; 10, 2001
Tobacman JK, et al, Carrageenan induces interleukin-8 production through distinct Bc110 pathway in normal human colonic epithelial cells, Am J Physiol, 292: G829, 2006
Suzuki F, et al, Suppression of interferon gamma production in mice treated with carrageenan, Eur J Immunol 16; 4:375-80, 1986
Thompson AW, et al. Immunopharmacology of the macrophagetoxic agent carrageenan, Int J Immunol Pharmacol 1:247-61, 1979
Bhattachryya S, et al, Exposure to the common food additive carrageenan leads to glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, inhibition of insulin signaling…, Diabetologia 55; 1:194-203, 2012
Tomioka H, et al, Comparative roles of macrophages and NK cells in the host resistance of mice to Mycobacterium fortuitum infection, J Infect 48:74-80, 2004 (In this study the investigators found that 3 out of 4 infected mice given carrageenan died of infection)
McKim JM, et al, Food additive carrageenan Part I: A critical review of carrageenan in vitro studies, potential pitfalls and implications for human health and safety, Crit Rev Toxicol 44; 3:211-43, 2014
Yang B, et al, Exposure to common food additive carrageenan leads to reduced sulfatase activity…,Biochimie 94; 6:1309-16, 2012 (and it changes heparin-heparan sulfate disaccharides; does this mean it could lead to deep vein thromboses and lung clots?)
Duarte DB, et al, Models of inflammation: Carrageenan air pouch, Current Protocols Pharmacology, chap 5, unit 5, 6, 2012 (PMID 2278300, carrageenan is used to create inflammation to study NSAIDs)
Gong D, et al, Phytother Res 26; 3:397-402, 2012 (carrageenan is used to create arthritis for animal studies)
